WoW – More fun together!

What The Heck Is the Tank Thinking, Anyway?

Worpress ate a big chunk of my Multi-pulls Part 2 post I have to spend time rebuilding that. In the mean time here is a post that has been sitting in draft for a while….

It can be really hard when you’re healing a pugged tank to figure out what he’s doing. Why exactly does he run up to some groups, while ducking around corners for others? Why does the fight get moved around halfway through? And why didn’t he see those mobs that ate me?

Assuming the tank is doing things for a good reason (not always a safe assumption), you can guess what he’s thinking by what he’s doing. Keeping one step ahead of the tank is the key to keeping him alive. Ever been getting a heal off on a tank who’s at the edge of your range, only to have him charge a mob and go out of range just as the heal would have landed? Annoying, but as a healer we need to know to move forward so that the farthest off mobs are still in our healing range.

Here’s a diagram representing the area the tank can see. He can see lots in front of him, and a little behind him depending on how scrolled in his camera view is.

Most fights, the melee dps will be right up next to the tank. He can see what they’re doing, no problem. Instinctively, the ranged dps and healer will be behind him, closer to where the previous fight is. Most pulls go like this: Tank runs in, starts fight, melee run in, ranged and healer move as close as they need to to get their spells off, things die, healer and ranged move in to loot, tank goes ahead again. It’s sort of a slow motion leapfrog.

Here we have added a circle showing the tank’s AOE threat area. Any mobs standing in this will be getting some damage and threat from the tank, whether or not he specifically targets them. How much depends on how much aoe damage and threat he does; lots from a paladin tank, less from warriors and bears. But see how the healer is standing well away from that aoe threat area?

Oops, here comes a pat – it sees you standing back there waving your branches and decides you look tasty. What to do?

Option 1: run away. But this puts distance between you and the tank. It’s his job to get the adds off you, but taking them away from him makes this harder. He might not have time before you’re dead, or he might not even notice.

On the other hand, if you run IN to where the fight is, as soon as the adds get to the tank’s AOE threat area, they’ll start getting aggro from the tank instead of you. The tank may still need to taunt them, but it makes things a lot easier for him.

This goes for when you’re dpsing too; mages have a really bad tendency to run away, take mobs with them, and then frost nova and blink out. Usually leaving the mobs next to someone else who doesn’t really want them either. Instead, run to the tank. Frost nova them there and everyone’s happy!

Line of Sight Pulls are really popular for bears especially since they don’t have a ranged silence. Pay attention if your tank is trying one!

Why is he hiding behind the corner here?

What does LOS mean exactly?

Come on, he’s trying to get you to cooperate here… what more do you need?